Courses on offer on the internet all offer numerous ways of learning and understanding these can make a lot of difference in whether your online learning experience is successful or not. The methods used to deliver your work or assignments and the way you deliver it to the tutor completed is totally different from those methods used in school or college but the outcome is the same, you earn a degree.

In order for you to get the most from your online learning course or programme understanding the components to it is essential, there are three main types of learning methods used in online learning and these are visual, auditory and tactile kinesthetic.

The basics behind online learning

* Reading – this is visual learning

* Listening – this is auditory learning

* Seeing – this is visual learning

* Speaking – this is auditory learning

* Doing – this is tactile learning

Speaking and doing are active types of learning while reading, listening and seeing are all types of passive learning, how well or how quick we learn depends on the type of learning which we find the easiest and how involved we are in learning. Studies have shown that we learn best through using a combination of the above along with the environment in which we choose to learn.

Active learning modes

The environment in which we learn can make all the difference to how much we learn and studies have shown that we learn more quickly by putting into practise what we learn. By talking, repeating and by doing what we have learned helps us to retain the knowledge of what we learned and all of these methods combine and are what are known as active learning modes.

Passive learning modes

The passive learning modes which help us to retain the knowledge we learn are speaking, listening and seeing which is then followed by listening and seeing.

Combining all this together

When we are learning online, we learn more by passive learning, this is due to the fact that we learn through reading text online and listening to audio clips with lessons. The active part of our learning is achieved by sending out e-mail and talking in online forums and chat rooms, the home environment plays a huge part when learning online as what we learn is put to the test in the home environment.

The home environment is thought to be the biggest reason why knowledge is retained as students put into practise in their daily lives what they have learned. In order to get the most out of your course it is essential that you choose a course which offers materials with which you are comfortable using and which suits your style of learning.